Thousands of calls to South Wales Police’s new 101 non-emergency number are going unanswered, new figures have revealed.

In an analysis of calls between January and October 2012, the force had the second-highest percentages (17.4%) of calls dropped and some of the highest average times taken to answer.

It also had the lowest percentage (40%) of calls answered within 30 seconds – with 152,136 of the total 380,342 calls unanswered within half a minute.

The longest time it took the South Wales Police control room to answer a call was 52 minutes and 18 seconds.

The force opened a new public service centre for taking 999 and 101 calls at its headquarters in Bridgend last spring and has previously said glitches at the opening led to a drop in performance.

Today, a spokesman told the BBC: “There have been periods where the introduction of new processes and technology have impacted on the number of calls answered and the waiting times.

“Lost calls can be inflated in periods of high demand and therefore inaccurately inflate figures… when we are dealing with major incidents such as Olympic Games, international rugby events, protests and murders we will on some occasions leave a 101 call unanswered whilst we respond.

“Lost calls can be inflated in periods of high demand and therefore inaccurately inflate figures.”

Steve White, of the Police Federation, said the figures from forces across England and Wales, “demonstrate that members of the public are clearly finding it more difficult to report crime”.

He said: “While the government insists that crime is falling, despite the significant cuts to the police service, the high volume of unanswered calls suggests that many offences may be going unrecorded.

“Crime recording is extremely complex in its nature, as these figures highlight.”

The data provided shows eight of the forces answered in under 10 seconds on average, with Kent, Suffolk, Devon and Cornwall and Merseyside proving to be the fastest.

Gwent Police had one of the highest percentages of calls answered within 30 seconds (85%) but, at 10.3%, also faced a high number of calls being disconnected.

North Wales Police did not supply percentages of calls answered within 30 seconds, but 9.1% were dropped.